This invention relates generally to apparatus for providing a continuous supply of can ends to a can fabricating or processing line.
Modern can fabricating, processing and manufacturing equipment operates at relatively high rates of speed in order to attain commercially economical production costs. To fabricate or otherwise process cans at these high rates of speed, can end parts must be fed to the fabricating or processing equipment in a uniform manner and at correspondingly high rates of speed from an effectively endless supply. To eliminate continuous supervision and attention by an employee, apparatus such as that described and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,722,741 has been found commercially attractive. In general terms, this can end infeed unit provides a number of can end carrier members, each capable of receiving and storing a stack of can ends. These can ends stacks can be supplied to the indexing unit carrier members manually, as by a single employee who attends and services a plurality of can processing lines and can end infeed units. The carrier members, filled with can ends, are indexed to a transfer station, where ejector mechanisms transfer each can end stack through a transfer station to the intake structure of a can end processing machine. The present invention involves improvements over the apparatus as shown in said prior patent.